Full Gear 2023

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can find the video Here.

We're just a few days away from AEW's next pay per view Full Gear, and I thought I'd make some predictions, but not the kind where I ramble on about every match on the card whether I'm bothered about it or not. Here's the card as of Wednesday evening as I'm making this so please bear in mind things will probably be different by the time you're seeing this, and if you care who I think will win, here that is. With that in mind I want to share five predictions for the show itself, and come Sunday I'll either look like a genius or a fool. Likely a fool whether I'm right or not frankly.

Also, let me know your predictions for Full Gear in the comments, or let me know what you think about mine.

1) The only title I see changing hands is the Women's World championship.

As you saw on my graphic there, I don't really see Kris Statlander, Starks and Big Bill, Orange Cassidy or MJF dropping their gold on Saturday. The one of those I'm least confident about is the tag title match, because honestly, who knows where they are going with that division? I do however think that one title might well change hands. I am and have been since AEW started a fan of Hikaru Shida, but I can also see them wanting to do all kinds of diva-ish shenanigans with Timeless Toni Storm as their champion.

Toni Storm's transformation has been wildly popular, and frankly I have more questions than answers. What actually caused her apparent mental breakdown? Why is she English all of a sudden (though her accent is perfect to be fair)? and just whats going on? My confusion wasn't helped when we were treated to her silent films that the American audience saw in picture in picture, meanwhile on the Fite TV feed we got a full screen experience complete with a genuine sounding silent film soundtrack. I watched these live looking for some sort of insightful meaning not knowing that is was actually just ad break filler like Sammy Guevara's cue cards. Also, respect to her for getting the phrase "chin up, tit's out" onto worldwide television.

To get back on topic, Toni comes across as the person they're investing in again, and this may even lead to the Toni vs Saraya one on one match set up at All In, possibly happening at Worlds End.

2) The Bucks vs Jericho and Omega will be fine.

Let me explain what I mean by that. At Revolution 2020, the Young Bucks challenged Kenny Omega and Hangman Page for the AEW tag titles, which was at the time and for a while after regarded as one of the best AEW matches ever. You could claim and I'm about to make the argument, that every person in that match has done just as good or better work since. I'm thinking of The Young Bucks' cage match with the Lucha Bros at All Out 2021. Kenny Omega's 30 minute draw with Bryan Danielson at Grand Slam, and Hangman also had a belter of a one hour draw also with Danielson. What the Revolution match had that none of those others did though, was a compelling long term storyline that would continue for years afterwards. A story that eventually led to Hangman defeating Kenny for the World title, and further on reuniting with The Elite.

Also, Chris Jericho. To be fair to the ayatollah of the bubbly, I truly loved his match with Eddie Kingston at Revolution 2022 and I'd put that up there, and also the All In match with Will Ospreay. My favourite stuff Jericho has done in AEW are the Stadium Stampede and Anarchy in the Arena matches, but they had some degree of production to help them. I guess what I'm trying to say is that despite one of these feeling not like the others, you still have three quarters of one of AEW's best matches, and even though it feels easy to doubt Jericho sometimes, I still think this one could be better than some online are expecting.

The other issue that I have is that the match in general match feels slightly out of place given that days before Full Gear, Jericho and Omega are booked in a Street fight that frankly should be on the pay per view since it's a built up match against the Don Callis family. Incidentally, who knew that in 2023 they would see Kota Ibushi and Paul White in the same match. I don't know this for fact, but it seems like the main reason this is on Dynamite and not the pay per view is that they can tie it in with whatever Like a Dragon is, as the brand deal will get more eyes on it on Dynamite than it would on Full Gear. It might also have something to do with the Young Bucks having a pay per view match in California, but they still could have put them on the show with some other team had they thought planned something for the Bucks sooner.

3) Hangman and Swerve need to switch gears.

AEW has had a bit of an issue lately with its wrestlers committing actual crimes and seemingly facing no punishment for them. It's getting to be as lawless as the dreaded NXT car park. Jay White (more on him later), has been walking around with the AEW World title for weeks now, Roderick Strong held a man captive in his home, and more pertinent to my point, Swerve not only nearly killed Nick Wayne a few months ago, but more recently broke into Hangman Page's home. It took a while for Hangman to respond to this and to be fair he showed some fire last week when he went after Swerve following his match with Penta, but it still feels odd that their rematch at Full Gear still has no stipulation as of me writing this.

I'm guessing that likely has changed following the last Dynamite before Full Gear. Whether it's a Texas Death match, which they've already done on pay per view this year, or a lights out match which is essentially the same, there should be some sort of stipulation added to ramp up the drama in this one. A few weeks ago I made a video listing wrestlers who could become the next AEW World Champion, and Swerve was on that list. I suggested that if they continue to build Swerve until say Revolution, he versus MJF could be a great feud in 2024, and this could be a continuation of that path. Hangman is currently a third of the ROH six man tag champions, so he at least has somewhere else to go after this feud, but Swerve if he loses will be on a rudderless ship should he lose.

4) Jay White has the potential to be one of MJF's best World title opponents.

I've worded that a certain way for a reason that will become clear soon. I've seen others online say that MJF's wrestling has improved a lot this year, and honestly I was of the opinion that he has been great in the ring for a long while, he just didn't wrestle enough for people to see that. In the past few months MJF has wrestled a lot more, so we've had more chance to see how good he really is. I know that others didn't seem to, but I personally I loved his match against Bryan Danielson at Revolution, and I didn't care for the Adam Cole build approaching All In, but I really got invested in the match in the end. I feel like this match has the potential to be better than both of those if the two men in the ring are allowed to do their best work. Let me explain what I mean by that.

His opponent Jay White, is another wrestler who some have conflicting opinions on, but I'm a huge fan of his matches, sometimes. Thats why I worded my prediction the way I did. Jay White himself, in a big time singles match like the ones he had in New Japan, the Jay White who was calculated and had a counter for every signature in his opponents arsenal, thats the Jay White I hope we get on Saturday. What I hope we don't get is Bullet Club shitty interference from the Gunns and Juice Robinson. When Kenny Omega had his big matches in New Japan, especially the Okada matches, the Young Bucks were there to support him, but they did not interfere, and I hope Juice and the Gunns are that at most. Hell, they might even do an angle earlier in the night where Jay's group gets laid out like the Acclaimed were last week by the Devil and his crew. All in all this will likely be the match we're talking about come Sunday, I just hope it's for good reasons. The talk of the Devil brings me to my final prediction.

5) We won't find out who the Devil is yet.

It's rare in wrestling these days that we have a genuine mystery that nobody seems to have a clear answer for. Last year we had the whole White Rabbit saga, and most of us assumed it was leading to Bray Wyatt, but thats likely the closest we've had in a long while. Honestly I have no idea who the Devil is, as but seen many intriguing theories. From Adam Cole, to Britt Baker, to even Danhausen. Okay I'm lying about Danhausen, but can you imagine how angry people would get if it was him all along?

Getting back on track, I don't see the Devil reveal happening at Full Gear, but I also feel like it needs to happen before the end of 2023. If AEW drag this out for too long it's possible that fans will get impatient and lose interest, especially if your eventual reveal turns out to be underwhelming. There's a certain biting point where the time will be right, and after that will be too late. If you pushed me for a guess on when the right should be, I'd say World End, as it would create a big cliffhanger going into 2024. Not to mention a better one that Elite vs Dark Order cliffhanger in 2019.

So there are my predictions, let me know what you think of them and also let me know your own in the comments. Thank you for your time and if you enjoyed this please consider hitting like or subscribing to my channel.